Business Account with no or Low Fees?

I'm looking into a new business bank account and would like to hear of any recommendations. I would prefer to have a low balance to start but if important could make a deposit if needed. I don't need an ATM card. I'm moving all my bank accounts from ANZ so looking for something else for my biz account.

I would like the following features:

• No monthly fees
• No fees to transfer to or from my other accounts at other banks
• International companies (in the USA mainly) can deposit money into account with no fees for me and no hiked exchange rates.

* I already have an ING maximizer account, a Rams account and a Commsec trading ATM account.

 

Sounds like a nice account to have.

 

Some accounts I'm looking at but not sure yet if they meet my requirements?

• NAB Business Everyday Account
  
• CommBank BUSINESS TRANSACTION ACCOUNT
  
• BankWest Business Zero Transaction Account
  
• Suncorp Business Saver Account

 

Just open up normal fee free account and label it business in your internet banking

 

• Suncorp - External transfers $2 so it's out
• bank west - External transfers $5 so it's out
• Commbank say I must have another business account as well and there is a minimum $10 monthly charge so they are out
• NAB, no charges but they won't tell me how much transactions from the USA will cost me which is strange as they will be already converted to US.

Not getting very far here, might be better to keep the ANZ offset account when I settle my property with them and ask them to change it to a savings account. Can this be done and I can keep the same account number?

might be the best idea, I will check out my other accounts and see what is the deal with them....

 

I believe so

 

PJames,

I have several trusts and they use business accounts. For one I use the CDIA account that is attached to the Commsec account - this is a fully transactional account with no fees.

For others I use a Business Online account from Peoples Choice Credit union. This doesn't have card access but can do BPay, EFT, direct debit etc.

Both are fee free, and pay some interest (the Commsec one only pays interest when balance is above $10k).

Not sure about the receiving foreign funds with no fees - haven't ever had that requirement.

Regards,

Jason

 

thanks Jason, well I already have a Commsec trading account so maybe that will qualify as the main business account they said I need to have the free fee business account. The guy I spoke to was from the Philippines call centre so maybe he did not know?

 

You wont get one account which will hit all 3.
First two are covered by the bankwest zero
Compare Business Deposit Accounts

The last one doesnt happen. Best thing to do is set up a USD account. Then use an online platform (eg xe.com) to do the transfer.
I have looked at every option, and although the xe.com process is slow (not due to xe - but due to bank transfer times) I have improved my exchange costs by about $800-$1200/month.

Blacky

 

I will continue my research on this tomorrow and thanks for your feedback.

With my current ANZ offset account I have never had any fees for incoming deposits from the USA that I'm aware of. I have been in the affiliate marketing business since the 1990's and have always been troubled by the fluctuations in exchange rates between the US banks that convert the money for the affiliate marketing networks. One network would pay me really good rates while another company would always be a lot lower. This was the banks that they use apparently.

Back in the late noughties when I was making over 10k+ US a month then this was a real issue. It could mean a lot of money I was losing if the rate was a few points different. when the dollar was also in the low .70's like it is now then 10k converted to AU was a substantial gain for me.

Sadly nowadays this is not a problem because I do not make anywhere near that much now and have not since 2011 as it slowed down gradually.

But I do plan to get things back to those gold rush days in the coming year so it will become more important but this is not an issue I can control besides promoting merchants who use a preferred network or use a good bank if they are independent.

I looked into opening an account back in those gold rush days and I did do it with Westpac but as my commission slowed I stopped using it. I would not bother to open a US account now unless my US income picked up dramatically. There were fees to have that account that need good income to justify it. Maybe things have changed these days with so many more people making income online, back then I was one of just a few.

I don't understand why all this fuss over receiving money from US companies, they have my ABN and everything is converted on their end. ANZ have never charged me extra fees for deposits from the USA. As far as I remember Westpac did not either when I banked with them prior to ANZ. So the conversations I have had today about this are really confusing and why they are making such a big deal out of international deposits? Now it's more about fees not so much exchange rates, If I get a miserly commission deposit of $200 for the month now and the bank charges $10 or $20 then that is what I'm worried about now. The exchange is done in the US well before this point and is another subject altogether.

 

NAB accounts $10/mth - no transfer fees for interbank transfers. No idea about fees for international deposits. Used to be, maybe it still is, if you didnt have a monthly fee, they charged you per electronic transaction- these can add up. They also charge you a fee for using the teller and depositing money with an express bag through the atm.

 

CBA phoned me up a while back and said that I could do better than the standard $10 a month business account, given that I was running a healthy credit balance. They switched me to their Premium Business Cheque Account which doesn't have a monthly fee as long as the balance doesn't fall below $15K at any point during the month, otherwise there is a $15 charge.

 

"CBA phoned me up a while back and said that I could do better than the standard $10 a month business account, given that I was running a healthy credit balance. They switched me to their Premium Business Cheque Account"

Were you already with them? Mind you, i would never get to a $15k balance.

I should have added in above post:
NAB "free" business banking is not so free.

 

Yes, long time customer - I hold a decent balance as I take a lot of annual support payments and am fortunate to be able to do the proper thing and draw them down over the year.

 

It's not always just the 2 banks you're dealing with, not all banks have direct links with other banks. So times the funds will travel through banks that do have a relationship with the particular bank. Each bank that does anything obviously wants to get paid.

 

Sounds awesome, i pay couple hundred a month in bank fees

 

I hate fees. I don't want to deposit 15k, I would rather keep most of my cash in higher interest accounts. I will look into this more over the following weeks and may call or stop into a few banks and see what I can find out. I will update here.....

 

I have the Bankwest Zero account.
It meets 1 and 2 of your requirements, I'm not sure about 3.
I don't pay any account keeping fees on it or to transfer money to any accounts at other banks.
You can get a master card debit and that will have the usual 2.5% transaction fee for overseas transactions.

My understanding is that for the best exchange rates is via currency brokerage services such as OFX
You should contact them and see if their service can work for you. You may need to either setup a US dollar account, either locally (with a local banks) or in the US (with a US bank)